Letter: Community Charter is striving to improve

Community Charter is striving to improve

Community Charter School of Buffalo salutes consultant Judy Elliott, Superintendent Pamela Brown and State Education Commissioner John King for their efforts to improve the city’s public schools. Elliott’s recent report is a sobering reminder of the challenges we all face in providing high quality education to an urban population.Community Charter School, located on the Buffalo-Cheektowaga border, will not cast the first stone toward the Buffalo Public Schools. But the shortcomings addressed by Elliott underscore why charter schools have become such an attractive option because their very nature makes it possible to quickly take action on deficiencies. That is exactly what our school is doing now.We educate 325 children in K-6 and we’re blessed with a dedicated administration and faculty and parents who love our school. Our children are well behaved and school is a happy place. Our neighborhood is stable and that’s because many families have moved into the surrounding blocks to be close.But the proof is in the pudding and it’s been a struggle to produce the academic results expected by the State Education Department and, just as importantly, us. Over the past three years we have seen many extraordinary gains among our students, especially in youth development, but we have admittedly lost ground on academic achievement. The most recent state testing in language and math showed a continued decline and that is unacceptable.To their credit, our trustees, administration and faculty engaged in a thorough analysis of the school’s academics, organization, finances and governance and we did not like what we saw. As a result, we are fundamentally changing all aspects of operations. Time is of the essence, and we are committed to quickly turning around our school and producing academic achievement that the state and our parents expect.Daniel S. RiciglianoMember, board of trusteesCharter Community School